


It Blurs into the World of Pretend

by frozenCinders



Category: Bx: Execute (OFF Fangame)
Genre: CSRverse, M/M, Suicidal Ideation, only briefly touched on but lenny is lenny after all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26164519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: "You know, I don't understand your fascination with balloons," Lenny had said once. "Why do you like those things so much? They're nothing.""Everything is something to somebody," was Lepi's response. For some reason, it stuck with Lenny.
Relationships: Lepi/Borbo | Lenore Thaddeus
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	It Blurs into the World of Pretend

They're arguing again. It's the same argument they always have, maddeningly cyclical behavior that is truly starting to wear on Lenny's nerves. It always starts with Lepi praising himself for his status as a harbinger followed by Lenny pointing out that there is a difference between lowercase life and capital Life. Lepi never seems to want to understand this.

"I don't think you're comprehending how horrible it is to think somebody loves you-- _you,_ as a person-- only to find out that they simply find your abilities convenient."

Lenny is practically lecturing him, sounding dangerously like he's speaking from experience. The more frustrated he gets, the harder it becomes to distance himself from both the past and the present.

"And I don't think you comprehend that I am able to nip that problem in the bud by thinking like this," Lepi brushes off. "I _am_ my grade. Most people cling desperately to life-- a love that everything that breathes could not possibly _all_ show me, physically, but that I get to feel regardless."

"Yes, and what of the people who don't cling like that? What of the people who see your gift as a curse? Don't you take it personally when someone hates life?"

"They don't understand what they have, that's all."

Lenny scoffs and allows a pause in conversation.

"You think I don't understand?" he really says more than asks. "You think I don't _fully comprehend_ that I and everyone else in the world would be glad for my death, and that this is for legitimate reasons?"

"The problem with you is that you "understand" too much. Your experiments and your callousness are abhorrent. We've been over all of this many times."

"Yes we have, but you never seem to let my words sink into that stupid square head of yours. It's in one ear and out the other, hm? Well, at least you have them. At the moment."

"If you see a biological flaw, you do realize I can change it quite easily? Which shape would you prefer? Something like this?"

Lepi shifts his head to have an almost exact resemblance to Lenny's helmet.

"I can even mimic your silly images," he says, turning his eyes into flat heart shapes and moving them like Lenny's favorite gif to annoy Lepi with.

"Very funny. Really, you're a cute little party monkey. Do a flip next!"

The mimicry of his helmet slips away and Lepi's eyes are boring holes into him.

"What point are you trying to get across, then?" he asks. "You claim I somehow miss it every time we have this conversation."

"It really is hilarious that you still don't get it, but allow me to explain AGAIN," Lenny says, his tone an impressive mix of both cheer and venom. "No matter how much you feel like you are one with your grade, you _have_ to be a person as well. You don't have a choice. You have a form, an appearance, a voice, a personality. Individuality. You don't _get_ to be a mere concept that everyone can rally behind as a universally good thing, though I know that's what you want."

"I can change all of that. Perhaps not my personality, but everything else is--"

"No, get out of my head for five seconds, Lepi," Lenny snaps, annoyed at the attempted interruption. "I'm starting to think you really don't know who you are. Can you tell me? Can you tell me who you are without referring to your status as a harbinger even once?"

Lepi was glaring at first, but now he won't even look at Lenny.

"I'm not leaving until I get an answer," Lenny tells him when the silence drags on for a bit too long. "If there's one thing I have plenty of, it's definitely time."

"I don't know what the hell you want me to say," Lepi hisses. "You're forcing me to ignore the largest part of my identity."

Lenny laughs outright.

"You yourself are ignoring that the "largest" part of your identity is your ego! That's not even a joke!"

There is a longer stretch of silence.

"I'm still waiting for an answer," Lenny pesters, arms crossed. "You'll have to come up with something."

"I can't. You knew this would happen."

His voice is quiet in Lenny's head-- not in volume so much as presence, like he can barely detect it.

"I don't claim to have known anything going into this. Just tell me who you are."

"Nothing," Lepi finally answers. "Without my grade, I am simply... nothing."

Another pause.

"Everything is something to somebody," Lenny says.

Lepi doesn't show any signs of recognizing the phrase, doesn't even manage to appreciate the impact one little sentence of his had on Lenny, which had absolutely nothing to do with his power whatsoever. For somebody who is so insufferably obsessed with himself, he is surprisingly clueless.

"It's you who said that," Lenny tells him. "Since you don't seem to recall."

"I did..?"

"Yes. I thought it was an interesting phrase, and I think about it often. I have seen too much and heard even more, but even now, things like that can stick with me. Just a simple phrase from a man living in his own shadow."

"How am I "living in my own shadow"?"

"Hmmmmm, seems like it'll be too complicated to explain my uncanny ability to analyze people to you, so I'll choose not to." His tone is completely annoying for the first time in maybe an hour, already trying to alleviate the atmosphere of the room from their heavy discussion. "Although, I might change my tune... for a price."

"A price."

"Yes, a price! Information is much too valuable to give away for free, and I've done so much of that already."

"Sure, yes," Lepi quickly dismisses. "What price?"

"A fair price... Far too low, maybe..."

"What is it?"

"Something that could be easily provided, but not so easily acquired..."

"Get to the fucking point, Lenore."

It seems Lenny's attempts to joke around aren't working on Lepi. That's never stopped him before.

"Fine, if you're going to twist my arm about it... I think my lips will remain sealed until I receive a kiss!"

Lepi doesn't even respond. He doesn't yell at him, he doesn't deadpan and glare, he doesn't change his expression. He blinks eventually, but not as a reaction. Lenny sighs in annoyance.

"Well, fine! If you're too immature to take a perfectly good deal when you're provided one, that can be your problem. Personally, I would take me up on it."

"No you wouldn't. You hate yourself," Lepi points out.

"... Alright, then if our positions were reversed, I'd take _you_ up on it."

"The current harbinger of death is always so busy. Do you truly have such a clear schedule that you can do nothing but talk in circles and annoy me all day? No wonder you were fired."

"You wound me," he says flatly, making no attempt to play it up like he normally would. "If you're refusing to pay me for my gracious services, then I suppose it's time for me to take my leave... You'll miss me."

"I won't."

"Oh, I think you will. Byyyyye~!"

Lenny only takes two steps in the opposite direction before Lepi calls for him to stop.

"Miss me already? I haven't even left yet!"

"... How big is the shadow?" he asks, barely perceptible again.

"So big that it's blinded you, poor thing. If you were to take my arm like a delicate damsel, I could valiantly lead you out of it, but alas... you do refuse to give me that kiss, so..."

"May I have a serious answer? Perhaps if I say "please"?"

"That was a serious answer, Life. So let's go back to normal and inevitably have this discussion again next month or so, hm?"

"I don't wish to ever have this discussion again," he says.

Lenny lets him have that one. He's been regularly challenging the way Lepi views his own existence, and as little progress as he'd made until now, it seems like Lepi is finally starting to crack. It's hard to say whether there is something wonderful to discover within the shell or if he is simply breaking something that would have been perfectly functional had he not come along, but he's always had the morbid curiosity to find out.

"Then let it sink in this time. Just do some thinking. I'll be around if you need me."

He didn't even mean to offer himself up like that, but he's not about to take it back. Lepi doesn't acknowledge that he said anything at all, and he leaves before Lenny can beat him to it.

"Nothing," Lenny scoffs to himself in disbelief. "Nothing."


End file.
